In The Shadows
by SugarSonic
Summary: I'm Shadow, and in shadows I was born.


**In The Shadows**

**By SugarSonic  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't know any of the characters mentioned, SEGA does.**

* * *

I'm Shadow, and in shadows I was born.

My destiny was to be lonely. I was created by an act of will – not generated by an act of love – and this grim perception has been haunting my soul since the very first time my eyes opened to discover the icy, unfathomable depths of the galaxies and the cold light of the stars twinkling tremulously in remoteness.

Shadow was my name and black was the color my creator chose for my appearance. Space Colony ARK, a little globe of steel pulsing with life in a lifeless universe, was the place I used to call "home", even if this word didn't really have a sense for me: the awareness of being the only one of my kind sadly marked my first, uncertain steps in a world that soon revealed itself as unfriendly and cruel.

But I had my powers, and I knew they were immense: I had been created to be dreadful and awesome.

I had my task, as I soon discovered: I had been conceived to be a superior being, the ultimate life form, a deadly weapon fighting for the survival of a decaying civilization.

And, above all, I had Maria. She was the tenderness I had never experienced before. She was the loving embraces and the smiles that filled my soul with joy. She was the friend my heart had always craved to have, even before knowing the meaning of such a word.

But, unfortunately, she was also the only one that really, sincerely loved me, and she gave an extreme demonstration of her affection when she resolutely drove me to salvation, locking me in a space capsule.

My eyes widened in shock and hopeless tears trickled down on my cheeks, while I watched the GUN shoot her down as they tried to stop my escape. I knew I was feared and hated because of my powers, but I would have never thought that my only, my dearest, my most beloved friend would have been the one chosen to pay the price for that!

Nevertheless, she still had the strength to give me her last message - words of hope enclosed in a plea for those I was now considering my worst enemies: humans! And with the soft whisper of her voice in my ears, I saw my "home" become smaller and then disappear while I traveled at mad speed in the darkness.

So, my capsule wandered weightlessly through the skies; again I was lonely, and my solitude was now filled by anger and despair, because not even my immense powers could have ever made her body warm and breathing again. No more would I embrace her, no more would her hand gently stroke my fur, no more would her lips tenderly place a kiss over the red quills on my head…

My eyes closed in desperation and opened in cold fury. I was Shadow, a lethal weapon, and tears were not going to run again down my face. Never!

After a long journey, I finally reached the planet named Earth, but, in the meantime, our enemies had already been alerted, and I was captured there. My heart beat slowly and achingly: her supreme sacrifice had been so cruelly useless! However, I had no chance. The GUN took me to a cellar and froze my body and feelings in a forced hibernation.

Fifty long, interminable years passed away before a mad scientist, who called himself Dr. Eggman, decided to awaken me from my icy slumber.

At the beginning, he was kind and gentle in an insinuating way. He told me he was the nephew of my creator, thus suggesting a relationship that my brain could appreciate but my heart rejected as meaningless. He then asked a reward for having been merciful to a life that was supposed to survive suspended eternally in time. I listened contemptuously to his declarations, coldly interested. I was Shadow! And my powers were ready to burst out, vibrating with a fury too long repressed.

But unexpectedly, he gave me a reason to hope: he was trying to locate the magic stones known as Chaos Emeralds, as they were going to allow him to rule the Earth and its worthless inhabitants. He requested the help of my powers and cunningly insinuated that I could be free to use them even for destruction.

A wild joy rose ferociously in my mind. I was given the occasion to let my anger explode and employ my forces for a justifiable reason. I agreed, and we verbally sealed a pact of alliance.

I began my raids on the planet. There, my powers could finally reveal themselves and I directed my helpless rage against beings I neither knew nor cared for since my task wasn't easy and violence often had to be used, making me sink more each day into a dark satisfaction.

Day after day, I got accustomed to my new situation, to the life on that surprising planet illuminated by the mighty star the Terrestrials used to call Sun. The Sun had impressed me from the very first moment. Such an immense source of light, radiating so powerfully! No more soft, enveloping darkness in which my pain could hide, only a strong, vibrating sensation of energy pervading my senses. The Sun's shining majesty evoked deep, painful feelings in my heart and "her" name always came to my lips while watching its glorious splendor.

Then I discovered that I was not alone: many other creatures, some with powers similar to mine, had been thrown on the Earth by an accident and I met and fought them several times.

One of them especially was a worthwhile antagonist. His name was Sonic, and his blue figure mirrored mine amazingly, except in color. He also had some of my skills, at least the ones that had been planned for me to possess at the beginning of my life. He was brave, daring and quick like a flash in his movements, and he could run at an incredible speed. But he also had a heart, and he demonstrated it many times, fighting for his friends and going to their rescue when they needed him… even through titanic efforts… even if that meant putting his own life at risk.

How many times we fought? I can't count them now, but each time it happened I let my anger burst out of control. Fighting was my only reason of living and I didn't care if my enemies were good or bad, and what were their reasons to combat so furiously against me.

Then, an unforgettable day, one of those creatures – a tender, charming, rosy little thing - watched the hopeless struggle of her friends against another threat and, incredibly, begged me to help them.

I frowned and gave her a sarcastic reply. How could she even think, how could she even dare to ask?

But again she looked at me in anguish. Her eyes were full of anxiety while she whispered her plea, imploring me to give her friends at least a hope of resisting.

A hope… Maria's last words painfully echoed in my mind.

I suddenly felt so miserable! She had given her life for me, and here I was, repaying her act of pure generosity with hate and destruction. Perhaps somewhere in that tiny, ridiculously self-centered planet named Earth, another little Maria was tenderly cuddling her beloved little friend, unaware of the danger represented by Dr. Eggman's delirious madness. And perhaps she too was going to be cruelly disappointed and maybe hurt or even…

This thought was unbearable for me… I simply couldn't let happen that tragedy again.

This is why I abandoned Dr. Eggman, frustrating his crazy plans of domination, and this is why I allied myself with my former enemies, helping Sonic to stop the lethal rays of Eggman's extreme weapon.

I had been created to be the ultimate life form. I couldn't take life away from any other being, even if imperfect.

I had been created to be the ultimate weapon and to protect a remote world. I couldn't let a madman destroy another one because of his vain dreams of glory.

I had experienced love and tenderness only once in my existence, and my little friend had loved me enough to give her life to save me. I could not betray her memory.

My choice was made. I could see surprise, then shock, then desperation in Sonic's eyes when that immense blast of energy hit me forcefully, draining my vital forces away. In the last, sad, rational sparks of my mind, I thought that his face was probably looking as desperate as mine when Maria locked me inside the space capsule and trapped me forever in salvation.

And suddenly an immense weariness washed over me, while a painful yet comforting feeling of relief slowly invaded my soul. I had done it, I had been faithful to her memory and now I would join her again, somewhere out there, in a place too far for me to imagine.

I floated weightlessly in space, leaving behind me my new and last friends and, at the same time, an entire world, happily unaware of the terrible danger it had just escaped.

Her innocent spirit was at my side when I finally fell into the deep, cold obscurity of the abyss, abandoning myself fearlessly to its dark embrace.

Because I am Shadow, and to the shadows I belong I must return.

_FIN_


End file.
